Anyways, Garrett’s been out of town all week for his yearly training and I've re-realized how much I love one of our favorite traditions.
My love languages are touch and quality time – I've known this about myself since I was young (er). When Garrett and I got married we often found that school and work did not allow us to spend as much time together as we would have liked. I would physically and emotionally get stressed and anxious. Finally one day I was so frustrated that I stomped my foot on the floor twice – very hard – to get Garrett’s attention (we call this “stomp stomp” – and I say it now to get his attention since we live on the second floor in our complex). He looked over and I exclaimed that we needed to take a break and go cuddle. These became a tradition called “every five minute breaks.” While they didn’t happen every five minutes, we knew how nice it was to just stop and take a break from everything going on around us. We’d be working and one of us would call to the other, “I think we need an every five minute break!!” And off to our room we’d go to just lay in bed and talk or lay in silence enjoying each other’s company.
In school we often saw each other on campus throughout the day but when we moved to Houston and I started working from home while Garrett was gone most of the day, the separation again started to take it’s toll on me emotionally and physically. I would get anxious and panic and my back would tense and I would get migraines (clearly Garrett is not allowed to die before me). So once again we began our tradition of every five minute breaks. This time though, as soon as Garrett walks in the door, we give each other a hug and one of us leads the other to our bed where we take five to ten minutes to just be. Sometimes we talk, a lot of times we laugh, but mostly we just lay there holding each other. We've found that the days we do this are incredibly pleasant. The days we don’t we almost ALWAYS end up arguing or fighting about some stupid thing. So now we just do it – every day. We allow ourselves to let go all the stress from the day – we've made our marriage our refuge from the craziness of the world.
I've always known that this special time we have together each day will always be one of our most cherished traditions. But sometimes it takes not doing it to remember HOW special the little traditions are. Whether it’s “every five minute breaks, ” holding hands when praying over dinner, playfully bickering over who’s turn it is to pray, my always trying to steal Garrett’s spot on the bed, Garrett coming home and always finding me turning around from my office chair with a big smile on my face, Garrett taking twenty minutes of alone time to read his comics, Garrett immediately checking out IMDB after we watch a movie even if he’s already read through it…the list goes on. But those are our traditions and I love every single one of them. When Garrett is gone my heart hurts because I don’t get to repeat our daily rituals. But when he comes home I know I appreciate those little daily moments more.
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